I Was Right All Along
by Gaming Ikari
Summary: [TwoShot] Ryouga has always found himself blaming Ranma for the problems he's had in life. In a night of rare discussion with Ranma, he learns just how right he was.
1. Chapter 1

I Was Right All Along

≈

The stars blurred as I bounded across the rooftops of Nerima, heading towards my destination: The Tendou Dojo. Already I could see my rival, my target, the cause of all my problems. Ranma Saotome lay quietly on the tiles of the dojo's roof, gazing up at the sky. With a surge of strength I bounded from the Takahashi's rooftop, noting her new white dog, before alighting on the roof next to Ranma, who tilted his head towards me.

"Hey, pork-breath. How's it going?" Ranma's voice was jovial, and on his face he wore the biggest damn smile I'd ever seen him wear. It'd had been just a few weeks since we'd gotten back from China. Weeks since Ranma had killed a god. I pushed my rage to the side as I looked down at his smile.

It wasn't his usual mocking grin. It wasn't a victorious smirk. It was a smile, like he was the happiest man in the world. How he could feel so damned happy with his own wedding being thrown into such chaos just a week ago?

I pushed the thoughts aside.

"What are you so damned happy about, Ranma?" I demanded, suspicious of my rival's joy. He was never this happy about anything. Last time I'd seen him was at the wedding, and that only for a moment before it had turned into a free-for-all for the cask.

"Akane," Ranma admitted, crossing his arms behind his head and staring back up at the sky with a serene smile on his face. "Take a seat and look up at the stars, Ryouga. Everything's perfect, now."

Unsettled, I sat next to him. I looked up at the stars, trying to discern the source of Ranma's giddiness. He was acting totally unlike the Ranma I was familiar with. Silence dominated us, Ranma content to stare up at the sky while I tried to piece together my thoughts.

"What did you mean? Why is everything perfect because of Akane?" I finally asked. Had Akane accepted this cad for a real suitor? Had she admitted her love for him? While Akari was waiting for me at her farm, I still considered myself one of Akane's friends. This jerk didn't deserve her.

"The fights, Ryouga," Ranma finally admitted after a long pause, stretching out one hand to the stars, his palm facing the inky black above us. The glow of chi filled his hand as he effortlessly blasted an orb of pure life energy into the night sky, watching as it became a bright yellow star in the night sky, before moving beyond our sight or fading. "Think about it, man! When we were kids in middle school training to be martial artists, did we ever dream of being able to manifest our chi as a projected force we could actually use in battle? Did we ever think we could consider the techniques weak compared to the stuff we know?"

He sat up, a manic energy overcoming him as he turned to face me. His eyes glowed with something unnatural, something which reached down through the numbness I was feeling as I tried to comprehend what he was saying. I wanted more than anything to be anywhere but here.

"I got to fight a god, Ryouga! I won a fight against a god!" Ranma was standing now, pacing back and forth with more of that restless energy. He suddenly stopped, turning to face me. "What's gonna happen next, with Akane under my protection? More gods? Maybe demons will come to try us? Or something even more wonderful!?"

He was excited, I realized as ice formed itself in my the pit of my stomach, adding a weight to it which dropped it to my knees. The thought of foes even stronger than Saffron was terrifying, but Ranma was...

I'd spent days trying to get to sleep after that fight with Saffron, and I'd just been on the sidelines. I'd been sick with worry for Akane.

"You know what I mean, Ryouga!" Ranma enthused, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me once before letting go, to splay his hands out once more to the stars. He clenched his fists, his entire body shaking. "You've been there with me from day one! Even back in middle school with those bread fights! You've always been stepping forward to grab a little more power, be just a little better at fighting! I bet you've even learned a new technique since China so you could match me again!"

With a sick realization, my hand strayed almost unconsciously to my belt. Inside the pouch was a scroll I'd picked up while visiting a small village of warriors in Hokkaido, detailing a way of multiplying my strength for brief bursts. I'd already learned the basics and had expected to use it when fighting Ranma tonight.

He was right. I'd been so eager to learn the technique so I could show Ranma up after his fight with Saffron.

"That's why I'm happy, Ryouga! The fights are never gonna end!" His grin was triumphant.

"Then why, Ranma? If you're so happy with Akane, why the other girls? Why don't you just admit your damned feelings and end all this petty bickering?" I almost spat the words, determined to figure at least that out.

"That's the key, Ryouga!" Ranma spun to face me once again. He raised a finger, wagging it at me as he stepped back with a grin. "With all the fiancées, the trouble raised is a lot more fun, a lot more intense! Shampoo brings all the Amazons and all their problems! Ukyou has Konatsu, and she keeps Shampoo on her toes! Both of those girls keep Akane guessing and keep things exciting around here! With those three, I'm never going to run out of people to fight, and they all keep getting stronger!"

"I'll stop you!" I snarled, grasping my umbrella and thrusting forward as I allowed my chi to surge. The technique, still not fully learned, didn't work as well as it could have, allowing the pigtailed madman to twist under the thrust and sweep my feet from under me, using my momentum to toss me off the roof. I twisted and landed on my feet, windmilling my arms as I nearly fell into the koi pond. A small wooden keg struck me, throwing me into the pond.

I flinched as I hit the water, feeling more raid down on me from the broken keg.

My eyes opened. I was human? What?

"Your curse was a lotta fun, Ryouga," Ranma admitted, now sitting on the edge of the roof. He grinned. "Of course, it means that no matter how strong you get, I can always win by finding a bit of cold water. So now you're cured."

"How?" I demanded, staring down at my cold, wet hands. I must be in shock, I noted absently. I should have been furious with Ranma for hiding a cure 'til now, should have been furious for the casual way he was treating everyone he knew, how casually he was treating his engagements. I couldn't work up the energy for anything.

"Jusenkyo water contaminates normal water and I realized Happosai left a few dregs in the keg old man Tendou got me," Ranma said with a shrug. He grinned, smiling down at me. "I would have cured myself, but that would have ended all the fights that get started thanks to my girl side. I couldn't have that, could I?"

I stared up at him. Once I'd considered him almost a friend. For the longest time he'd been my rival, the one who marked the progress I was making in the Art and the one who was always pushing me to be better by his very existence. Now I knew, he was just a sick person who had to be stopped.

"I'll stop you!" I whispered, my mind racing. I could, too. I wouldn't even have to fight him. "I can tell people what you're really like. Your little game will fall apart when I tell Akane and everyone else about all of this."

He smiled.

"Nah, you can't," Ranma said, pulling one knee to his chest and letting the other dangle over the lip of the roof. "If you could do anything about it, I wouldn't be telling you all this. But I figured that you were getting too relaxed, too close to thinking about me as a friend. I figure if you know the only way to end all this was if you beat me, you'll train extra hard."

He was right, damn him. I began to focus my chi again, searching for that flux which would cause my chi to surge and boost my power so I could end his chaos. Ranma flowed off the roof with freakish speed, barely landing next to me before driving a sharp knee into my stomach to send me backwards into the Tendou's perimeter wall. Then he was in front of me again.

"Go train for a few more days. You can't beat me unless you master that technique. I'm not going anywhere anyway," His grin caused the little black beast in my chest to roar, filling me with a blinding heat.

I knew he was right, and I hated that he knew just how right he was when he said I'd go train. My mind was already racing as I went through the technique, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

I had to end his madness.

He watched me depart, knowing I would now be returning to kill him.

He was still smiling.

≈

Author's Notes

A bit of concept from DB Sommer's Veils Placed Over Others Eyes, a bit of the Ranma from WFRose's Age of the Warhorse, inspired by a third fic in which Ranma was talking with some unnamed person about the situation as if he was manipulating things. Sure, this Ranma does love Akane, because she keeps getting him right into The Shit™.

I wish had a WTF category for fanfiction. This'd fit, no?

Sorry. I'll go back to writing that full-length Ranma fic I'm working on now.


	2. Chapter 2

I Was Right All Along

≈

"Die, Ranma!"

I'd screamed the words over and over before, but I'd never really meant them before now. My umbrella led the way as my technique tripled both my strength and speed. Ranma was forced to dodge, but his follow up sweep struck what must have felt like immovable iron to him, my leg not moving an inch as I drove my knee directly into his jaw with more force than I'd ever struck anything before.

He skidded back across the concrete. Rather than yelling another useless battle cry, I instead opted to throw a few bandannas to keep him moving as I concentrated on what would happen if Ranma won. Akane would be trapped in a relationship she'd never be happy in, never know that Ranma was deliberately stringing her and the other fiancées along. Ranma would continue his sick little game, slowly leeching the happiness out of everyone around him, all for his own entertainment.

"Shi Shi Hokodan!" Momentarily drained, I idly noted that the last time I'd produced a blast like that had been while saving Ukyou on Toma's island. The immense green blast rocketed directly into Ranma, throwing him back to hit the side of Furinkan High with a sharp crunch which caused a spiderweb of cracks to spiral out from where he now lay in the wall.

He sat up, coughing up blood. That smile. That DAMNED smile!

"Good shot, Ryouga!" Ranma complimented, wiping the blood from his jaw. He hopped out of the seat his flying body had made in the wall, landing easily on the ground as he cast an appraising look at me. He squinted. "That's some technique, too! I felt you coming for the last couple of minutes, but that first strike with the umbrella nearly got me anyway! Very impressive!"

He cracked his knuckles and popped his neck, falling into a ready stance and beckoning me on with one hand.

I charged. At the last possible second, I once again forced myself to use the technique, trading my impressive staying power for a momentary burst of speed. Rather than rely on a surprise this time, I drove my hand directly into the ground in front of Ranma, ripping a large chunk of concrete out of the ground and tapping the breaking point as I held it in my hand. The effect was rather like a fragmentation grenade blowing up at point blank range, forcing Ranma's arms to blur to catch the chi-infused shrapnel.

His hand moved almost automatically to block my fist as I followed up with a punch. My enhanced strength caused his arm to snap back, driving the back of his hand directly into his nose, rocketing him away from me to bounce along the soccer field.

I ran after him, coughing up blood of my own. I could only use that technique a couple more times before I started to do serious damage to my body. I had to finish this quickly.

"Very impressive!" Ranma cheered, coughing up more blood as he sat up from where he lay. He was still smilling! He flipped up to his feet. "I'm going to have to go all out on you!"

With that, he blurred from my senses. Concentrating, I could still sort of make out where he was, but it was difficult. Legs wrapped around me and I felt strikes hammering into my back, locking my muscles in position, paralyzing me. He followed up with two Moko Takabisha's which blasted me into the ground, furrowing a trench behind me as I carved through the grass chin-first. I flipped myself upright, scarcely having time to guard as hundreds of punches rained down on me within seconds. Ranma followed up with a move which forced open my guard, raining a devastating kick into my sternum which robbed me of my breath. He then faded from my senses again.

I focused my chi to my hand, then struck the nearest Breaking Point on the ground, releasing my chi as the ground exploded. My chi, focused into the stone, billowed out with the cloud, soaking the area around me in a saturated field of my own energy. A blur of nothing moved through that field, and I lashed my foot out to catch Ranma in the chest, feeling a rib crack under my feet as I watched his surprised face.

"You figured out a counter to the Umisenken," Ranma commented, getting up from where he'd fallen and grinning. "Now I'm really impressed! I was saving this for the next guy stupid enough to mess with Akane, but I guess you've gotten good enough that you deserve it!"

His chi surged, not unlike the way my strength and speed increased with my new technique. I dropped into a defensive stance, watching the man I'd come to kill warily. What the hell was this!?

"Moko Takabisha, revised!" Ranma yelled, forcing a large yellow ball of energy in front of him. Rather than rocket towards me like a normal technique, it hovered. Ranma grinned, his arms blurring as he began to slap the ball at Amaguriken speeds. Each slap produced a smaller orb of chi which struck with less force than any individual chi blast Ranma had ever produced.

The volume of them more than made up for the lack of power in each strike, however. I was forced to twist and flip my way through the barrage, two things I'm not especially good at, before making a slight mistake. Against any other foe, it would have gone unnoticed, wouldn't have been a mistake at all.

Against Ranma Saotome, it was exploited harshly.

Dozens of small spheres of chi struck me, blasting into me with overwhelming force. They continued to hammer at me as I flew limply through the air, grasping consciousness as a drowning man grasps a life preserver. I fought against the blackness as I dimly felt myself land, squinting for a moment before I realized I was looking at the clock on the face of Furinkan High.

A hand gently grasped my shoulder, laying me smoothly on my back. The shadow resolved itself into Ranma after a moment.

"Good try, man," Ranma admitted, checking me for injuries as he smiled. That damned smile! I wanted to strangle him, but lacked the energy and the concentration to lift a hand. He finished his inspection of me. "Well, looks like you're gonna be fine in a couple days. Try to limit how much that technique boosts you, it'll harm your body a lot less. It'll probably let you use it a lot more."

"Why are you helping me?" I demanded, wanting to rant and scream at my own impotence. A foe I wanted to kill was giving me pointers on how to do just that. Ranma merely smiled down at me, wresting his hands on his crossed-legged feat.

"Ryouga, like I said... None of my other foes have been able to match me for power over and over again," Ranma explained, gesturing to me. His head turned, looking at the crowd which had gathered to watch our fight. "No matter how far I've come, you're always there to match me. Sometimes, you even manage to beat me. It's a comfort to know you're here, buddy. No matter how strong I get, you're always going to be a challenge for me."

"A comfort?" I asked, bewildered. He was comforted by my skill in the Art?

"You're always around for a challenge, and at the rate I'm going I'm gonna run out of people good enough to keep up with me," Ranma admitted, finally standing to walk away. He smiled again. "With you around, I've always got that challenge."

My thoughts churned as I considered that. I watched Ranma as he walked away, considering how I could beat him. He always seemed to have a counter, have a last minute trump card to play which snatched victory from me. I wanted to, had to beat him!

But how?

≈

I smiled at Akari as she stood in the doorway of her farmhouse, and she was grinning as she watched me work. The farm, as always, needed a few chores done which required more strength and complexity than her pig could handle. I continued to feed the heavy bales of plant life into the grinder, then circled around to check the meal that it was producing.

Good enough. It's not like pigs are picky eaters.

I turned off the heavy machine as the last bale was processed, then turned my attention to the cracked support beam in the barn. I ran my hand down the length of the crack, pushing gently and feeling it give just a bit.

As I'd expected it would have to be replaced; otherwise the barn would collapse in a couple of weeks. I walked over to the thick cut of lumber, using my tools to finish squaring off the beam. Wood peeled off in ever smaller layers as I approached the end of the work, and I stood the beam up, shoving the new support right in under the old one.

Then I wrenched the old beam out, allowing the weight of that portion of the roof to rest on the new beam. With light taps of one finger, I edged the new support beam into the old beam's place. After that, it was a simple matter of rebolting the beam to the rest of the barn's framing.

I was just putting my tools away, when I heard a voice yelling my name from the farm's front gate. I exited the barn and saw Ranma walking up the lane way to the house, again calling for me. That smile was still there, but it was strained.

"Ryouga, good to see you, man!" Ranma called out jovially, waving with one hand as if he'd traveled a couple of days just to say hello. I wasn't buying it.

"What are you doing here, Ranma?" I demanded, crossing my arms as I glared at him."Why are you looking for me?"

"I just figured you'd lost track of time," Ranma said, shrugging with both hands in his pockets. The position put him at a disadvantage and I knew he'd be off balance if I were to strike... almost as if he was inviting it. "You're usually around once every couple of weeks or so, but nobody in Nerima's seen you for the last two months. I was getting worried."

"Well, I'm fine," I growled tersely, gesturing to the farmland around me. Lively crops grew in the dark soil, almost groaning under the weight of the late-summer harvest yet to be collected. "Akari needs help for the farm, so I've been doing my part around here."

"So I see," Ranma nodded, his eyes not moving from me for an instant... and I realized: He was here for a fight. He'd come looking for me for a fight. That was why his stance was so open, so easily attacked. He wanted me to try to strike him down, to continue our never-ending battle.

I knew how to beat him. It was so clear to me, now.

"So, is that it?" I asked, half-turning towards the barn, almost but not quite ending the conversation. I gestured again to the crops. "Work on a farm's never really done, Ranma. I've got to get back to work if I want to be ready for the harvest."

"You don't want to have a spar?" Ranma asked, desperation tinging his voice. He reached out a hand towards me, turning the pleading half-grasp to a casual wave of his hand as if trying to hide it. "I mean, I'm already here and it's been a couple months since we last fought. You've probably got that technique mastered now, right?"

"No Ranma, I don't..." I grunted, shaking my head and gazing out over the sea of green in front of me. I nodded towards it. "That's been my fight for the last two months. I haven't really had a chance to keep up with the Art for the last little while. I can't even muster up the depression for a Shi Shi Hokodan. You'd win."

"That's crazy talk," Ranma pleaded, taking a half step towards me before halting himself. "You, you don't give up! You're my rival, you're the guy who always keeps up, always keeps coming back! No way you'd lose to me, right?"

"I've lost," I said firmly, not meeting his desperate eyes. I shrugged, again gesturing out to the crops all around me. "This place, it's so serene. It takes so much work I don't have time to practice, but it's like it doesn't matter. It doesn't bother me that I'm not learning a new technique or refining an old one because this farm is my work, my Art now."

"Oh," Ranma said quietly, his shoulders dropping as he gazed out over the crops, searching. I knew he didn't see the peace I did. I knew that all he saw was a bunch of stupid plants. He sighed, turning away from me. "Well take care, man."

His walk was slow, almost meandering as he left the farm. To be truthful, I of course still found the time to practice. In fact, I'd perfected that technique enough that it was almost no strain on my body at all. I'd developed a version of the Bakusai Tenketsu which could travel a distance and blow up the ground beneath a foe's feet. I'd even developed a new chi project technique which worked off of my own quiet pride instead of that black depression which used to follow me wherever I went.

I knew that if I'd fought him, he'd have kept coming back. I knew he'd develop a counter to my techniques and become even stronger, even faster. I knew that if I kept fighting him, he'd keep coming back for more and more until we were bitter old men.

I knew that the only way I could find peace was if I admitted defeat. Admitted that Ranma Saotome was better than me.

I knew that in admitting that defeat, I'd finally won.

≈

Author's Notes

This is your fault, Archaon. Totally your fault. I was originally going to do that piece with Akane, but then that last bit developed. However, you were the one who inspired me to get my ass moving on everything here. The second half was originally going to be that confrontation with Akane, but I decided to go with Ryouga and Akari at the farm instead.

I'd like to clarify something: I do believe that Saffron qualifies as a god, but I typically ascribe the sort of traits you get with Norse, Roman, and Greek gods with the Ranmaverse Japanese and Chinese gods. Essentially they're really powerful mortals who won't get old, but can be killed by a being of similar power... Not all-powerful like the Christian or Muslim versions.


End file.
